


Cookies & Hugs

by Kiiratam



Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Compliant, Comfort, Cooking Therapy, F/F, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:11:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23474425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiiratam/pseuds/Kiiratam
Summary: They meet in the depths of night, for it is only then that they can do so without drawing Her gaze and Her hunger.They meet in the kitchen, for it is only there that their cookery can be accomplished.They meet in the hopes of better times ahead.(Or, Yang teaches Weiss to make cookies).Takes place during Volume 5, between Chapters 8 and 11 (My BMBLB fic index).
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Yang Xiao Long, Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 22
Kudos: 154





	Cookies & Hugs

"Zwei, where are you going?" Weiss wasn't _running_ after Ruby's dog, but she was walking rather quickly. "Zwei, come back here." Her heels and Zwei's toenails echoed on the polished stone floor of the Schnee manor.

  
He'd finally stopped, prancing and barking outside of Winter's old room.

  
Stooping down, Weiss spoke seriously to him. "You can't just run off like that. Whitley will call security on you."

  
Zwei turned back to her, and started licking her face.

  
"Yes, I love you too." She gave him a few vigorous pets, and he subsided, turning back and scratching at the door. "There's nothing in there anymore, Zwei."

  
He whined, and kept scratching.

  
"Winter left, Zwei. And all of her things-" Weiss stopped. She couldn't remember what had happened to everything Winter had left behind. She couldn't even remember if there had been a fight about it.

  
Zwei turned to look over his shoulder, giving Weiss his saddest, most adorable eyes.

  
"Well, I suppose there's no harm in looking." She reached for the doorknob, wondering if it was locked.

  
It wasn't, and Zwei bounded through the opening as soon as it was wide enough to accommodate him.

  
Weiss followed, though she didn't remember Winter's room getting this much sunlight.

  
And what was that humming noise?

* * *

  
Without opening her eyes, Weiss grabbed her scroll. It was where it was supposed to be, of course, right on her bedside table at Beac- the Schnee Ma- Mistral. She was in Mistral now. And if Zwei wasn't here, Ruby was. Yang too, and Jaune, Nora, and Ren.

  
Unrolling her scroll, rubbing her eyes, Weiss looked at the time - 1:38am - and her new message:

  
< **Y. Xiao Long** \- You want to learn how to make cookies?>

  
Weiss sat up in bed. She wasn't sure why Yang hadn't just come down the hall and knocked. Or why now was a good time to make -

  
\- Ruby was asleep. It was the _only_ time to make cookies.

  
< **Ws. Schnee** \- I'll be there momentarily.>

  
Weiss wished she'd had room for a pair of slippers. She'd managed to find room for her nightgown, but slippers hadn't seemed important enough. Swinging out of bed, Weiss braced herself, and put her feet on the floor. It wasn't nearly as bad as she had been expecting.

  
She slipped out the door, and padded down to the kitchen.

  
Yang was leaning on the island, watching something on her scroll. Weiss thought she heard waves? But Yang looked up when she came in, and paused the video and rolled her scroll up. "So, cookies."

  
Weiss nodded. "What kind are we making?" Ruby usually made chocolate chip - Ruby usually ate chocolate chip cookie dough.

  
"Peanut butter. And you're making them, I'm just going to tell you what to do." Yang grinned. "Which is a reversal of the natural order, but it's late. Or early. Society has broken down."

  
Weiss had to admit that she _had_ been pretty bossy back at Beacon. And it was Yang. She loved to tease. Weiss tried to riposte, instead of just hugging Yang and telling her that she'd missed her. They'd been through that already. "All right, but you're not getting out of Freezerburn practice."

  
"Pretty sure I can nail the timing in my sleep still."

  
"We won't know unless we practice." Weiss rounded the island to stand next to Yang. "So where do we start?"

  
"Hand-washing. You're going to be mixing this by hand. Literally." Yang passed her the soap. "Which is the other reason I messaged you. It's not easy to get peanut butter off of this." She waved her new arm.

  
As Weiss washed up, she asked, "What was the _first_ reason?"

  
"Couldn't sleep. Might as well do something useful." And Yang leaned on the counter, sagging a bit and suddenly looking a _lot_ more tired. "I messed up Ruby's birthday cookies. Last year, I mean."

  
Weiss kept quiet, waiting for Yang to say more.

  
"It was the first year I didn't make cookies for her. Our dad had to do it." She traced a circle on the counter with her new fingers, looking down at it. "I'm doing better. But..."

  
"You want back-up. Just in case." 

  
"Yeah." Yang took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "Apron?"

  
There was a floral print apron hanging next to Ren's pink one, and Weiss took it down and tied it around her waist. She didn't want flour, or peanut butter, or whatever went into this, on her nightgown. 

  
Yang had gotten a bowl out. A really big one. She smiled when she saw the look Weiss was giving it. "We're making a quad batch. A normal one makes, eight cookies or so? So that's a batch for Ruby, a batch of cookie dough for Ruby, and two batches for everyone else." Yang snorted. "I don't think I've ever made a single batch of this."

  
"Where are the measuring cups?"

  
Yang pointed at a drawer. "We only need a teaspoon, though. And the scale, if it's in there."

  
It was. Weiss retrieved them, and set them next to the bowl. "What next?"

  
"Go ahead and grab ingredients." Yang started listing things off, and Weiss made a list in her head as she stepped over the pantry. "Oh, and chocolate chips."

  
As Weiss filled her arms with ingredients, she asked over her shoulder, "Why aren't we making chocolate chip cookies? Aren't they Ruby's favorite?"

  
Yang was digging in the refrigerator. "She'll eat any kind of cookie. And chocolate chip cookies are really finicky. I know they're the one that everyone remembers their gran making-" She set four eggs on the counter, delicately, using her Atlesian hand. "-Well, generally. Not me. But that's what people always think of, right?"

  
Bringing the rest of the ingredients over, Weiss said. "If you say so."

  
"I mean, storybooks are full of grannies and sweets and stuff. Even if it's not true for us, it still feels true." 

  
Weiss shifted a bit. She'd learned to read on SDC quarterly reports, and she wasn't sure if Yang was going anywhere with this, or if she was just talking to fill space.

  
But Yang had moved on. "Okay, pound of brown sugar, half pound of white sugar. I'm going to crack these eggs into another bowl. Just in case there are any bloody spots, or something."

  
"You said something about chocolate chip cookies being finicky?" Weiss was determined to learn what she could, and she could do that while measuring.

  
"Oh yeah, they're a pain. I've got a picture on my scroll of everything that can go wrong, and what it makes your cookies look like. So you can do better next time."

  
Weiss nodded. That sounded useful. "Can you send that to me?"

  
"Sure. Here." Yang slid the bowl of eggs over. "Pour those in, add forty ounces of peanut butter." She pulled out her scroll, and Weiss caught sight of the video she had open. Blake's smiling face. And then it was gone, as Yang opened her pictures folder.

  
As she measured, Weiss pondered. She didn't know how bad Yang's year had been, but she could make some guesses. Yang was different than she'd been. The Fall of Beacon had affected all of them - but Yang was... Weiss tried to put words to it as she poured the eggs in. Rawer? She'd always been somewhat mercurial, but there was more of an edge to her now. 

  
An edge? It wasn't like she was a sword. Weiss put her contemplation on hold, and asked, "What next?"

  
"Two teaspoons baking soda, two teaspoons vanilla, one teaspoon salt. And I should have done this earlier, but oven at 350." She went over to the oven and turned it on, then went back to her scroll. "Ah, found it." Yang tapped a few buttons on her scroll. "Okay, sent it to you."

  
"Thank you." 'Refined' wasn't the right word either. Yang always knew what an appropriate reaction would be; she just didn't always take it. Weiss was pretty sure that if Yang was invited to a formal dinner, she'd be able to - not 'fit in', exactly, but put everyone at ease. If she wanted to.

  
Yang grinned at her. "Now comes the fun part. Just mix that all up with your hand."

  
Weiss hesitated.

  
"Stick your hand into that mess, squeeze those yolks, get all the wet and dry ingredients blended." She made a go-ahead motion. Still holding her scroll in her other hand.

  
Rolling her eyes, Weiss did what Yang asked.

  
Still grinning and snapping off a few pictures, Yang said, "You make the best faces. Oh, use your hand kind of like a paddle." She made a scooping motion to demonstrate. "Once it's all the same consistency, try to form it into a big ball."

  
Weiss was having to hold onto the side of the bowl for leverage, as she manipulated the mass of dough. "It's just sticking to everything." Mostly her hand.

  
"Just keep working it. It'll firm up."

  
Having noticed the innuendo - inadvertent on her part, definitely _not_ on Yang's - Weiss sighed. The one upside of the CCTS being down was that it limited Yang's ability to share the video she was doubtlessly taking.

  
"I missed your sighs." Yang set her scroll down. "I mean, you had the _worst_ timing but-" She stopped, swallowing.

  
"I miss her too." They couldn't go back to those Beacon days, but if they could just get RWBY together again...

  
It would help. Weiss kept mixing.

  
"Yeah." Yang blinked a few times, shook her head. "How's it coming?"

  
The dough was sticking to itself now, even pulling most of the sticky bits off of her hand and the sides of the bowl. Weiss tilted the bowl to show Yang.

  
"Good. Twelve ounces chocolate chips, and get them evenly distributed. I'm going to look for a cookie scoop."

  
And then there was Raven, and what she'd told them, on top of everything else. Weiss shook out the chocolate chips, carefully getting the scale to read 12.00 oz. They'd been told about Ozpin, and the Maidens, and Salem, but Weiss wasn't sure what she could _do_ about any of that. She didn't have the resources she was accustomed to, just what she'd brought. And what more she could develop of her Semblance.

  
But her grandfather had won a great deal with his Semblance and sword. And his leadership.

  
Weiss wondered how much more her grandfather could have accomplished if he'd had peers, not subordinates.

  
"Weiss, could you grab a couple of cookie sheets and spray them?" Yang added hastily, "With the cooking spray."

  
You wash vegetables with soap and water _once_ , and everyone got _very specific_ with their directions, Weiss had found. Then again, she'd written a paper on the process of sublimation for Yang, to explain the exact _perfect_ moment to initiate Freezerburn.

  
"Okay, the best we've got is an ice cream scoop." Yang took a scoop out of the dough, flattening it against her real hand, and worked the action to drop it onto the cookie sheet Weiss had just sprayed. "Just means the cookies will be a bit big."

  
"Oh no."

  
Yang snorted. " _Very_ convincing. Here, scoop more out." She handed the scoop to Weiss. "I'm just going to flatten this with my palm, aaaaand I forgot the fork." She pulled open the silverware drawer and grabbed a regular fork. "Just press it down to make a crosshatch."

  
"Why?"

  
"That's what peanut butter cookies look like." Yang shrugged. "I mean, it's what my peanut butter cookies look like. You can be a rebel, I guess."

  
Smiling at her friend, Weiss held out her hand for the fork.

  
As she got the rest of the cookies scooped, pressed, and forked, the oven beeped. And Yang went back to her scroll - not recording anything, not even paying attention to it, just holding onto it with a distant expression.

  
Yang was, Weiss decided, less performative. Less willing to pretend. Weiss wasn't sure if she would have been able to tell anything was wrong with the old Yang. She'd just smile, and joke, and be completely unmanageable in practice because she'd been angry about something all day and practice was the only time she could let it out. 

  
But she was still Yang. Just... different. Weiss was trying to adjust to a Yang who showed emotions other than gaiety and violence. Regularly, at least, not just in extermis.

  
"How long am I baking these for?" She really didn't want a repeat of the cake incident. 

  
Yang shook herself out of her fugue. "About ten minutes. We just want the edges to be brown."

  
They put the pans in the oven. Weiss, wishing she'd remembered to bring her scroll down, set the oven timer.

  
The two of them lapsed into silence again.

  
It was nearly two in the morning. Weiss tried to think of something to say, something that would help. After a minute of silence, she gave up on that plan, and tried something practical. "How are we keeping Ruby from eating these for breakfast?"

  
"The usual. Hiding them." Yang looked around the kitchen with a thoughtful expression. "Probably easiest for you to just take them up to your room, and bring them out after practice."

  
Nodding, Weiss poked around the kitchen until she found a platter with a lid. "This ought to work."

  
"I'll make bacon or something for breakfast. Get the coffee going. Cover up the smell so it can be a surprise." Yang yawned.

  
"You can go to sleep if you want. I actually know when to take the cookies out." Weiss pointed at the timer.

  
"Nah, I'm good." The cake incident had not been forgotten, evidently. "Besides, I want one when they're hot."

  
"That's an unusual way to charge your Semblance."

  
Yang snorted. "I think you mean the 'best way to charge my Semblance.' Yeah, the molten cookie hurts. And it's _delicious_."

  
"I wonder if I can use my Semblance to make the oven cook faster."

  
"Pretty sure it would just make it hotter. Since the air would be moving faster."

  
"I'll try it with the toaster in the morning."

  
Yang held out her hands. "How about with something that _isn't_ going to cause a fire? Maybe a nice boiled egg?"

  
There weren't even any curtains in this kitchen to catch fire.

  
Before the conversation could fade again, Weiss decided to take a risk. "What was that video you were watching?"

  
Looking back down, Yang started toying with her scroll again. "Just a..." She struggled for a moment as Weiss waited. "A memory. You remember that wedding you went to on the beach?"

  
"That you two crashed? We were there before you."

  
Yang looked back up at her, a grin creeping back onto her face. "I've been going there since I was a baby, Weiss. I don't think you're going to win this one."

  
Weiss sighed. "No, I don't think I will." She swallowed, trying to find the right words again, wishing she'd thought further ahead, planned out what she was going to say. "Good memory?"

  
Closing her eyes, Yang nodded.

  
And Weiss was struck by the _uselessness_ of words, and, stepping forward, just wrapped her arms around her friend in a tight hug. Willing her hopes to also encircle Yang, fortifying her good memories. 

  
Yang hugged her back, pressing her face into Weiss' shoulder, breathing slowly and deliberately.

  
The timer went off with a shrill _beeeeeeeeeeeep_.

  
Weiss didn't want to let go, but she also didn't want the cookies to burn down. Yang saved her from a decision by twisting out of the hug and opening the oven door. "They're done."

  
"The middle doesn't look done."

  
"Yeah, but the edges are done, and they'll cook for a bit after we take them out."

  
Grabbing oven mitts, Weiss took the pans out and set them on the stovetop. And realized after she'd done it that Yang could have just used her artificial arm. Or that either of them could have engaged their Aura. Though, that sort of sustained heat was a lot more difficult to deal with than a momentary burst of fire, just as a matter of concentration. It might be something worth practicing.

  
"Don't forget to turn the oven off."

  
Grateful for the reminder, Weiss did that. She took a deep breath of cookie-scented air. "Thank you, Yang."

  
"You think you can do it on your own?"

  
"Send me the recipe? Just in case? I want to have it in writing."

  
Yang nodded. "It'll be a bit before they're cool enough to move. Or eat, even for me. I can just bring it up to your room when they're ready. Let you get back to sleep."

  
Yawning, Weiss undid her borrowed apron, and stuck it back on the hook. She looked at Yang. "If you're sure."

  
"Yeah, I need a bit longer before I'm tired enough to actually fall asleep."

  
Weiss was already tired enough to fall asleep, and now that she wasn't focused and learning, it was beginning to sink home. She started back to her room.

  
"Hey Weiss?"

  
She forced her eyes open, looking at Yang's face. Tried to understand everything written there.

  
"Thanks for coming down."

  
"Of course. Thank you for teaching me."

  
Yang snorted. "I've given you a terrible burden. Ruby's going to know you can make cookies."

  
Rolling her eyes, Weiss headed back to bed. It wouldn't be a burden at all.

**Author's Note:**

> < **Y. Xiao Long** \- Here's the recipe:  
> Peanut Butter Cookies (single batch makes ~8 cookies)  
> Combine:  
> 1 egg  
> 10 oz creamy peanut butter  
> 4 oz brown sugar  
> 2 oz white sugar  
> 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract  
> 1/2 teaspoon baking soda  
> 1/2 teaspoon salt (go light, especially for multi-batches)  
> Mix until it comes together, sticking to itself, rather than the bowl.
> 
> Add 3 oz chocolate chips. Mix well.
> 
> Portion out onto greased cookie sheet using a #20 scoop (~2 in diameter). Press slightly flat; crosshatch with fork.
> 
> Bake in a 350° F oven for 9-10 minutes, or until edges are browning. Cool before eating.>


End file.
